Category: Universals Archive

Universal 705: Original There is a tendency for high and low short vowels to be more central than the corresponding long vowels. Standardized There is…

Universal 721: contour tones ⇒ level tones Original If a language has contour tones, it also has level tones. Standardized IF there are contour tones,…

Universal 737: Original The Human Propensity Universal:In a split-adjective language, human-propensity predicates will be encoded by the verbal strategy. Standardized IF there is a nominal-verbal…

Universal 753: Original A contrast between five basic vowel qualities is the norm for a human language, and in general the most common systems are…

Universal 769: Original In a given language the number of voiceless primary fricatives is highly likely to be greater than the number of voiced ones.…

Universal 785: secondary oral stops ⇒ primary oral stops Original A language is highly unlikely to have secondary oral stops unless it also has primary…

Universal 801: complex morphology ⇔ noun classes Original Languages that have a complex morphological structure are more likely to show systems of noun classes. Standardized…

Universal 817: Original Voiced > voiceless neutralization takes place most commonly in final position and never intervocally. Standardized IF voiced > voiceless neutralization occurs in…

Universal 833: Original Languages with two or more laterals may contrast them either in manner or voice, but not both (e.g. a language will not…

Universal 849: Original In initial clusters, the existence of at least one fricative + fricative combination implies the presence of at least one stop+ fricative…